Bulgarian Paper Fires Journalist Who Exposed Baku’s Support for Terrorists

Bulgarian journalist Dilyana Gaytandzhieva

YEREVAN (ArmRadio)—The Bulgarian Trud Daily newspaper has fired Dilyana Gaytandzhieva, the journalist, who last month published an expose about Azerbaijan’s support for terrorists, reporting that 350 Azerbaijani diplomatic flights carry weapons for terrorists.

Gaytandzhieva said in a Facebook post she was fired a few days before going back to Syria to continue her job.

Gaytandzhieva’s comes after the she was summoned to the Bulgarian Special Security Agency for an interrogation.

“A few days ago I received a call from an agent working for the Bulgarian Special Security Agency. He told me to go to their office. I was questioned, I was interrogated about the source of information I used while preparing my investigation on the weapon supplies to terrorists,” Gaytandzhieva said in an interview with Armenpress.

Dilyana Gaytandzhieva announced her firing on Facebook

“I explained everything and I was very honest with the public in my article. And I explained in full how I got those secret documents. I refused to give any other information aside from what I had already provided in the article. Two hours later after my investigation I got a phone call from the secretary of the newspaper where I used to work – Trud Daily – and she asked me to file my resignation letter by the end of the day,” the journalist said. She didn’t even have a chance to meet the editor-in-chief and was not told about the reasons why she had been fired.

Who’s behind all this? Dilyana Gaytandzhieva says “it should be very influential people, and not only in Bulgaria.” “This case is not about a personal issue. This is about the freedom of speech in general,” she says.

“When the article was published, the Azeri Embassy to Bulgaria sent a letter to Bulgarian media to complain that my article was against them. However, it was not against them. It was against the criminal scheme, which Azerbaijan is part of,” Gaytandzhieva said.

However, the journalist says “the article was not against the Embassy. “The Embassy was just the source of information after being subjected to a cyber-attack.”

“The Embassy urged the Bulgarian authorities to investigate me and investigate the cyber-attack. As I understood, after that complaint the Bulgarian National Security Agency launched an investigation into the cyber-attack, and now they are investigating not the content of the documents, not the criminal scheme, not the weapon supplies to terrorists. They are investigating my sources, my right to have this information, because this information is of public interest not only for Bulgaria, but also of the whole world. So after the complaint of the Azeri Embassy I was interrogated and fired,” Gaytandzhieva said in an interview.

The journalist, who used to work for Trud Daily, considers that the paper is not ready to be an independent media and to support independent journalism.” “Just two weeks ago I was on a meeting with my chief editor, who asked me not to give up and continue my investigation. We were arranging my assignment to Syria to continue the story, to investigate the supply of weapons on the ground. All of a sudden, when I was about to leave for Syria, my contract was suspended without any explanation,” she continued.

Gaytandzhieva assures, however, that no one can stop her from continuing with the investigation. “They couldn’t stop me two months ago, they couldn’t stop me yesterday to speak out. I just posted on social media. They can’t force an independent journalist to keep silent. I’m not obliged to anybody, I’m obliged to tell the truth to the people, this is my job.”

“I repeat that it’s not about me, it’s about journalism in Bulgaria, journalism in Azerbaijan for example. I received a lot of angry comments by Azeri people, and my guess is that they are related to the government of Azerbaijan. So, how can we fight against terrorist schemes if we stand against these people, against the President of Azerbaijan? I’m not afraid to say that the Bulgarian government is well informed about this scheme, because all the diplomatic clearances I have documents about were given by the Bulgarian authorities, and by other countries in Europe, the US and others. All countries you can think of are involved,” the journalist said.

Gaytandzhieva is confident that the development is a result of Azerbaijan’s intervention in Bulgaria’s internal affairs. “My interrogation happened after the Azeri Embassy in Bulgaria urged the Bulgarian authorities to investigate me.”

What can the international community do to fight illegal weapon smuggling? Gaytandzhieva says that under international law, supplying weapons to militants constitutes an international crime, which must be prosecuted and investigated by international bodies.

“In our case we can speak about an independent international investigation by the United Nations. The UN should launch an investigation against the Azeri authorities in the first place, because they provide their state company, their diplomatic flights to carry weapons, and I have documents proving this. The UN should launch investigation against Azerbaijan, against my country, against the United States, against Saudi Arabia, against all involved without differentiation. All of those involved should be investigated. If the UN really wants to stop terrorism, it should start with stopping the weapon supplies,” she said.

Gaytandzhieva is determined to continue the investigation. “I have nothing to lose, I need support from other independent journalists, support from people. My power is the truth. So I have nothing to lose any more, and I’m not going to turn back. Nothing in this world will change, if journalists don’t show the truth. We’re not journalists any more, if we don’t speak up, if we don’t show the truth.”
Any expectation from international media, considering that the journalist’s professional activity is being blocked.

She expects no support from international media. “I’m not the first and last journalist to be fired for doing their job. I don’t have high expectations from mainstream media, because they have their political agenda, their objectives and they policy. What I expect is to be able to spread this information worldwide not by mainstream media,” she noted.

Gaytandzhieva also revealed facts of Azerbaijan paying to journalists to have certain articles published. “I can give you a fact obtained from the leaked documents after the cyber-attack on the Azerbaijani Embassy. The Azerbaijani Embassy pays money to journalists for articles in favor of Azerbaijan or articles ordered to be published by Azerbaijan.”

“I’m going to set up my on on-line media, because no one in Bulgaria will now agree to publish my investigations. I will not be offered job in Bulgarian media. So I think about establishing my own media, this is the solution,” the journalist concluded.

Who was it that said: "When scooping from the bowl~our spoon made of paper`"

Paper Ladle
Թուղթէ Շերեփ

Window Quarterly
Vol. I, No. 2, 1990
Copyright 1990

Khrimian Hayrig: The Paper Ladle

Editor's note: Affectionately called "Hayrig" by the
Armenian people, Megerdich Khrimian was the Catholicos
of the Armenian Church between 1892-1907. In 1878, at the
request of Patriarch Nersess and the National Assembly,
Khirimian represented the Armenians at Congress of Berlin.
Upon his return to Constantinople he recited this message at
the Cathedral. (Haig Ajemian, Hayotz Hayrig, page 511-3;
[translated by Fr. Vazken Movsesian].

Blessed and beloved Armenians:

Now, you have all perked up your ears, impatiently and
anxiously waiting to hear what sort of news Khirimian
Hayrig has brought us from the Berlin Congress, and what
will he say about Article 61 which the powerful governments
of the world have bestowed upon the Armenian provinces.
Listen carefully to what I am about to say. Grasp the
profound meaning of my words and then go and contemplate
on my message.

As you know, upon the decision of Patriarch Nersess and the
National Assembly, we went to Berlin to present the
Armenian Case to the great powers of the Congress. We had
great hopes that the Congress would bring peace to the world
and liberation to the small and oppressed nations, among
which we count ourselves.

The Congress convened, the statesmen of the great powers of
the world gathered around diplomatic tables covered with
green cloth. And we, the small and suppressed nations
waited outside the Congress. In the middle of the Congress,
upon a table covered with green cloth was placed a large
bowl of heriseh (a thick and pasty stew-like meal) from
which large and small nations and governments would draw
their portion.

Some of the participants pulled to the East, some pulled to
the West, and after long debates, in order, one by one, they
called the representatives of the small nations [into the
meeting]. The Bulgarian entered first, then Serbian and the
Gharadaghian. The rattling of the swords hanging from their
sides attracted the attention of the assembly.

After speaking for some while, these three, pulled out their
swords, as if ladles made of iron, and dipped into the bowl,
took their portion of heriseh and proudly and boldly
departed.

It was now the turn of the Armenian delegate. I drew near
with the paper petition from the National Assembly,
presented it and asked that they fill my plate too with
heriseh. Then, the officials standing before the bowl asked
me, "Where is your iron ladle? It is true that we are serving
heriseh here, but he who does not have an iron ladle cannot
draw from it. Listen up. In the future, if this heriseh is
distributed, do not come without a ladle or you will return
empty handed.

Dear Armenian people. Could I have dipped my paper ladle
in the heriseh? It would have become wet and stayed there.
There, where guns talk and swords make noise, what
significance do appeals and petitions have?

And I saw next to the Gharadaghian, the Bulgarian and other
delegates, several brave [men], blood dripping from the
swords hanging at their sides. I then turned my head, as if I
was looking for the brave men from Zeitoon, Sasoon,
Shadakh and other mountainous areas. But where were they?
People of Armenia, tell me, where were those brave souls?
Should not one or two of them have been next to me, so that
showing their bloody swords to the members of Congress I
could have exclaimed, "Look, HERE IS MY IRON
LADLES! They are here, ready!" But alas, all I had was a
paper petition, which got wet in the heriseh and we returned
empty handed. Truly, had they compared me with the
delegates of the Congress, I was taller, my facial features
were more attractive. But to what avail? In my hand was
placed a piece of paper and not a sword. For this reason we
were deprived of the heriseh. In spite of all, in view of the
future, going to the Congress of Berlin was not useless.

People of Armenia, of course you understand well what the
gun could have done and can do. And so, dear and blessed
Armenians, when you return to the Fatherland, to your
relatives and friends, take weapons, take weapons and again
weapons. People, above all, place the hope of your liberation
on yourself. Use your brain and your fist! Man must work
for himself in order to be saved...

Bulgarian journalist disclosing Azerbaijan's support to terrorists
dismissed from post

YEREVAN, AUGUST 25, ARMENPRESS. Dilyana Gaytandzhieva, a Bulgarian
journalist, who published a scandalous report on Azerbaijani state-run
airline’s supply of weapons to different heated parts of the world
under the cover of diplomatic flights, has been dismissed from her
post, reports Armenpress.

“Today after I was interrogated by the Bulgarian National Security
Agency about the secret documents, which were leaked to me about the
weapons supplies for terrorists in Syria, I was fired by Trud Daily,
just few days before going back to Syria to continue my job”, she
writes on Facebook, with her investigation attached, but at the same
she doubts that the source can be removed from Trud Dialy.

A scandalous investigation has been published in the Bulgarian
newspaper Trud on July 2 which reveals the Azerbaijani state circles’
direct engagement in supplying weapons to Islamic terrorist groups at
different parts of the world.

Dilyana Gaytandzhieva’s investigative article mainly focuses on the
illegal and large-scale export and sale of arms to Syria, Iraq,
Afghanistan, Pakistan and Congo by Silk Way Airlines (an Azerbaijani
state-run company) under the cover of diplomatic flights.

Documents implicating Silk Way Airlines in arms supplies were sent to
the author of the article by an anonymous twitter account – Anonymous
Bulgaria. Dilyana Gaytandzhieva says over the past three years the
state aircrafts of Azerbaijan carried on-board tens of tons of heavy
weapons and ammunition headed to terrorists under the cover of
diplomatic flights. The author of the investigation notes that some of
the weapons that Azerbaijan carries on diplomatic flights were used by
its military in Nagorno Karabakh.

The international media broadly reacted to Dilyana Gaytandzhieva’s
investigation.

ARMENPRESS news agency as well revealed scandalous facts about the
activity of Azerbaijani embassy in Bulgaria while examining the
documents that were accessible on the internet. Pressures were
recorded on other citizens who carry out their professional activity
in Bulgaria. The Azerbaijani ambassador even urged the Union of
Journalists of Bulgaria to frozen journalist Tsvetana Paskaleva’s
membership, as well as to hinder the events of AGBU Bulgaria branch
that carries out legal activity in that country. Weeks ago it became
known that Chairman of AGBU Bulgaria’s youth union Hayk Karapetyan had
to leave the post of the member of the Plovdiv National and
Integration Council under still undisclosed circumstances. The reason,
according to ARMENPRESS information, has been the interference of the
Azerbaijani side and the fact that Bulgaria’s state bodies succumbed
to pressures instead of protecting the rights of a citizen of the
country.

Last month, I wrote about Bulgarian journalist Dilyana Gaytandzhieva’s revelations that Azerbaijan’s state-run Silk Way Airlines had shipped under diplomatic cover 350 planeloads of heavy weapons and ammunition to terrorist groups in Syria and many other countries in the last three years.

On Aug. 24, Dilyana tweeted: “I just got fired for telling the truth about weapons supplies for terrorists in Syria on diplomatic flights."

Dilyana posted on her facebook page that she was fired due to pressure on the government of Bulgaria by Azerbaijan, as she was about to leave for Syria to continue her investigation.

In an interview with Armenpress, Dilyana said that before her firing she was called by the Bulgarian Special Security Agency and asked about her sources of information for her revelations. She replied that her source was the website of the Embassy of Azerbaijan which was hacked, but she would not provide any further details. Two hours later, she got a phone call from her newspaper, Trud Daily, telling her that she was dismissed.

After she published her article, Dilyana revealed that the Azeri Embassy urged the Bulgarian government to investigate her; as a result she was fired from her job.

The daring Bulgarian journalist, however, refuses to remain silent! She told Armenpress that no one can stop her from continuing her investigation: “They couldn’t stop me two months ago; they couldn’t stop me yesterday to speak out. I just posted on social media. They can’t force an independent journalist to keep silent. I’m not obliged to anybody. I’m obliged to tell the truth to the people, this is my job.”

Dilyana stressed that Bulgaria was well-informed about these illegal weapons’ shipments since she had all the documents proving that the Bulgarian government, several European countries, the United States, and many others had given their approval for this secret and illegal operation!

The Bulgarian journalist urged the United Nations to launch an investigation against Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, the United States, Saudi Arabia, and other countries. In addition, Dilyana appealed for support from independent journalists and the public at large. She emphasized: “I am not the first and last journalist to be fired for doing their job. I don’t have high expectations from the mainstream media, because they have their political agenda, their objectives and their policy. What I expect is to be able to spread this information worldwide not by the mainstream media.”

Dilyana also revealed that Azerbaijan paid Bulgarian journalists to publish articles favorable to Baku. “I can give you a fact obtained from the leaked documents after the cyber-attack on the Azerbaijani Embassy. The Azerbaijani Embassy pays money to journalists for articles in favor of Azerbaijan or articles ordered to be published by Azerbaijan.”

Dilyana insisted that she is determined to continue her work: “I’m going to set up my own on-line media, because no one in Bulgaria will now agree to publish my investigations. I will not be offered a job in the Bulgarian media. So I think about establishing my own media; this is the solution.”

Confirming Dilyana’s revelations is an article by Thierry Meyssan, in the sott.net website, reporting that Operation Sycamore involves at least 17 states and represents several tens of thousands of tons of weapons: “Over the last seven years, several billion dollars’ worth of armament has been illegally introduced into Syria…. Numerous documents attest to the fact that the traffic was organized by General David Petraeus, first of all in public, via the CIA, of which he was the director, then privately, via the financial company KKR with the aid of certain senior civil servants…. New elements now show the secret of Azerbaijan in the evolution of the war [in Syria]…. While Bulgaria was one of the main arms exporters to Syria, it received help from Azerbaijan.”

Meyssan, in his article, quotes Sibel Edmonds -- ex-FBI translator and founder of National Security Whistleblowers Coalition -- revealing that “Azerbaijan, under Pres. Heydar Aliyev, from 1997 to 2001, hosted in Baku the number 2 of Al-Qaida, Ayman al-Zawahiri. This was done at the request of the CIA. Although officially wanted by the FBI, the man who [was] then number 2 of the international jihadist network travelled regularly in NATO planes to Afghanistan, Albania, Egypt and Turkey. He also received frequent visits from Prince Bandar ben Sultan of Saudi Arabia.”

The Armenian-American community should invite the distinguished Bulgarian journalist Dilyana to the United States in order to publicize through lectures and press conferences her sensational revelations about Azerbaijan’s illegal weapons’ shipments to terrorists.

Over the last seven years, several billion dollars’ worth of armament has been illegally introduced into Syria – a fact which in itself is enough to disprove the myth according to which this war is a democratic revolution. Numerous documents attest to the fact that the traffic was organised by General David Petraeus, first of all in public, via the CIA, of which he was the director, then privately, via the financial company KKR with the aid of certain senior civil servants. Thus the conflict, which was initially an imperialist operation by the United States and the United Kingdom, became a private capitalist operation, while in Washington, the authority of the White House was challenged by the deep state. New elements now show the secret rôle of Azerbaïdjan in the evolution of the war.

How were the jihadists of Aleppo supplied with Bulgarian weapons?

During the liberation of Aleppo and the capture of the Saudi military staff who were on site, Bulgarian journalist Dilyana Gaytandzhieva noted the presence of weapons from her country in nine warehouses abandoned by the jihadists. She carefully noted the information on the boxes, and once she returned home, she investigated the way in which the weapons had been delivered to Syria.

Since 2009 – with the short exception of the period between March 2013 to November 2014 - Bulgaria has been governed by Boïko Borissov, a highly colourful character from one of Europe’s main criminal organisations, the SIC. Let’s remember that Bulgaria is a member of both NATO and the European Union, and that neither of these two organisations offered the slightest criticism concerning the accession to power of a Mafia lord who had been identified as such a long time previously by the international police services.

It is therefore clearly at the risk of their lives that Dilyana Gaytandzhieva uncovered the organisation, and the editors of the Sofia daily, Trud, published her article [1]. While Bulgaria was one of the main arms exporters to Syria, it received help from Azerbaïdjan.

The gigantic CIA arms traffic against Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and India
Since the beginning of the Arab Springs, a gigantic arms traffic was organised by the CIA and the Pentagon in violation of a number of resolutions by the UNO Security Council. All the operations that we will be mentioning here are illegal under international law, including those organised publicly by the Pentagon.

As far as arms traffic is concerned, even when individuals or private companies are used as shields, it is impossible to export sensitive equipment without the authorisation of the governments concerned.

All the weapons we will be mentioning, apart from the electronic intelligence systems, are ’Soviet-type’. By definition, even if we pretend that the armies supplied with NATO-type weapons are indeed the final recipients, this is an impossibility. These armies serve only to cover the traffic.

We already knew that the CIA had contacted the SIC, and that Boïko Borissov had been called upon to manufacture an emergency quantity of Captagon destined for the jihadists, first in Libya, then in Syria. Since Maria Petkova’s investigation, which was published in the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN), we knew that between 2011 and 2014, the CIA and the SOCOM (Pentagon Special Operations Command) had bought 500 million dollars’ worth of weapons from Bulgaria on behalf of the jihadists. Then, later, we learned that other weapons were paid for by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and transported by Saudi Arabian Cargo and Etihad Cargo [2].

According to Krešimir Žabec, of the Zagreb daily Jutarnji list, at the end of 2012, Croatia delivered 230 tonnes of weapons to the Syrian jihadists for a value of 6,5 million dollars. The transfer to Turkey was handled by three Ilyushins from Jordan International Air Cargo, and the weapons were then parachuted by the Qatai Army [3]. According to Eric Schmitt of the New York Times, the whole system had been created by General David Petraeus, director of the CIA [4].

In 2012, when Hezbollah attempted to unearth the CIA / SOCOM network, an attack was perpetrated against a number of Israëli tourists at Burgas airport, the nerve centre of the traffic. Ignoring the Bulgarian police enquiry and the report of the medical examiner, the Borissov government blamed the crime on Hezbollah, and the European Union labelled the Lebanese Resistance as a « terrorist organisation » (sic). We had to wait for the provisional fall of Borissov before the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Kristian Vigenine, pointed out that this accusation is without foundation.

According to a source close to the PKK, in May and June 2014, the Turkish secret services chartered special trains to deliver Ukranian weapons to Rakka – which was then called the Islamic Emirate in Iraq and Syria, and is now known as Daesh. The weapons were paid for by Saudi Arabia, as were more than a thousand Hilux vehicles (double cabin pick-ups) specially altered to resist desert conditions. According to a Belgian source, the purchase of the vehicles had been negotiated with the Japanese firm Toyota by the Saudi company Abdul Latif Jameel.

According to Andrey Fomin of the Oriental Review, Qatar, which did not want to be left out, bought the most recent version of the Air Missile Defense Complex "Pechora-2D" from the Ukranian state company UkrOboronProm, for the jihadists. The delivery was made by the Cypriot company Blessway Ltd [5].

According to Jeremy Binnie and Neil Gibson of the professional arms magazine Jane’s, the US Navy Military Sealift Command launched two tenders in 2015 for the transport of arms from the Romanian port of Constanta to the Jordanian port of Aqaba. The contract was won by Transatlantic Lines [6]. It was implemented on 12 February 2016, just after the signature of the cease-fire by Washington, in violation of its engagement.

According to Pierre Balanian of Asia News, this system was extended in March 2017 with the opening of a regular maritime line by the US company Liberty Global Logistics, linking Livorno (Italy) / Aqaba (Jordan) and Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) [7]. According to geographer Manlio Dinucci, it was mainly used to deliver tanks to Syria and Yemen [8].

According to Turkish journalists Yörük Işık and Alper Beler, the last contracts of the Obama era were implemented by Orbital ATK, who organised, via Chemring and Danish H. Folmer & Co, a regular line between Burgas (Bulgaria) and Jeddah (Saudi Arabia). For the first time, we are now talking not only about weapons produced by Vazovski Machine Building Factory (VMZ) (Bulgaria), but also by Tatra Defense Industrial Ltd. (Czech Republic) [9].

Many other operations took place in secret, as demonstrated by the affairs of the cargo Lutfallah II, inspected by the Lebanese Navy on 27 April 2012, or the Togolese cargo the Trader, inspected by Greece on 1 May 2016.

The total of these operations represent hundreds of tonnes of weapons and ammunition, perhaps even thousands, mainly paid for by the absolute monarchies of the Gulf, allegedly to support a « democratic revolution ». In reality, these petro-dictatorships only intervened to dispense the Obama administration with having to explain themselves to the US Congress (Operation Timber Sycamore) and cement their belief that the moon is made of green cheese [10]. All of this traffic was under the personal control of General David Petraeus, first of all via the CIA, of which he was the director, then via the financial investment company KKR, for which he worked thereafter. He benefited from the assistance of senior civil servants, sometimes under the presidency of Barack Obama, and then – massively – under that of Donald Trump.

The secret rôle – until now – of Azerbaïdjan
According to Sibel Edmonds - ex-FBI agent and founder of the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition - Azerbaïdjan, under President Heydar Aliyev, from 1997 to 2001 hosted in Bakou the number 2 of Al-Qaïda, Ayman el-Zawahiri. This was done at the request of the CIA. Although officially wanted by the FBI, the man who was then the number 2 of the international jihadist network travelled regularly in NATO planes to Afghanistan, Albania, Egypt and Turkey. He also received frequent visits from Prince Bandar ben Sultan of Saudi Arabia [11].

To its security relations with Washington and Riyadh, Azerbaïdjan - whose population is nonetheless mainly Chiite – adds Sunni Ankara, which supports it in its conflict with Armenia concerning the secession of the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh).

Heydar Aliyev died in the United States in 2003, and was succeeded by his son Ilham Aliyev. The USA-Azerbaïdjan Chamber of Commerce thus moved into Washington’s backyard, with, alongside President Aliyev, stood Richard Armitage, James Baker III, Zbigniew Brzeziński, Dick Cheney, Henry Kissinger, Richard Perle, Brent Scowcroft and John Sununu.

According to Dilyana Gaytandzhieva, in 2015, Minister for Transport Ziya Mammadov placed the state company Silk Way Airlines at the disposition of the CIA , at the expense of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The Minister for Foreign Affairs, minimally scrupulous Elmar Mammadyarov, sent requests for official recognition of « diplomatic flights » to several of his embassies, which protected the flights from being searchcd under the Vienna Convention. In less than three years, more than 350 flights benefited from this extraordinary privilege.

Although, according to the international treaties, neither civil nor diplomatic flights are authorised to carry military material, requests for recognition as « diplomatic flights » require the explicit detailing of the cargo transported. However, at the request of the US State Department, at least Afghanistan, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Bulgaria, Congo, the United Arab Emirates, Hungary, Israël, Pakistan, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Turkey and United Kingdom closed their eyes to this violation of international law, just as they had ignored the CIA flights to and from their secret prisons.

In less than three years, Silk Way Airlines transported at least one billion dollars’ worth of armament.

One thing leading to another, journalist Dilyana Gaytandzhieva uncovered a vast system which also supplied the jihadists not only in Iraq and Syria, but also in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Congo - also paid for by the Saudis and the Emiratis. Some of the arms delivered in Arabia were redirected to South Africa.

The arms transported to Afghanistan were delivered to the Talibans, under the control of the US, which is pretending to fight them. Those delivered to Pakistan were probably destined to commit Islamist attacks in India. We do not know who were the final recipients of the arms delivered to the Republican Guard of President Sassou N’Guesso in the Congo, or those delivered to South Africa under President Jacob Zuma.

The main arms dealers were the US firms Chemring (already mentioned), Culmen International, Orbital ATK (also mentioned) and Purple Shovel.

Apart from the Soviet-type arms produced by Bulgaria, Azerbaïdjan, under the responsibility of Minister of the Defence Industry Yavar Jamalov, bought stocks in Serbia, the Czech Repûblic and also in other states, declaring each time that Azerbaïdjan was the final recipient of the merchandise. Concerning the electronic intelligence material, Israël placed at their disposition the firm Elbit Systems, which pretended to be the final recipient, since Azerbaïdjan does not have the right to buy this type of equipment. These exceptions attest to the fact that the Azerbaïdjani system, although requested by the United States and Saudi Arabia, was controlled from start to finish from Tel-Aviv.

The Hebrew state, which pretended to be neutral during the whole of the Syrian conflict, nonetheless bombed the Syrian Arab Army on many occasions. Each time Tel-Aviv recognised the facts, it pretended that it had destroyed the arms destined for the Lebanese Hezbollah. In reality, all these operations, with perhaps a single exception, were coordinated with the jihadists. So today we learn that Tel-Aviv supervised the deliveries of arms to these same jihadists, so that although Israël limited itself to the use of its air force to support them, it did in fact play a central rôle in the war.

According to the international conventions, the falsification of certificates of final delivery, and the supply of weapons to mercenary groups who overthrow legitimate governments, or destroy recognised states, are considered to be international crimes.

Operation Timber Sycamore, in its various aspects, is the most important criminal case of arms trafficking in history. In the updated parts, it involves at least 17 states and represents several tens of thousands of tons of weapons.

Azerbaijan’s ruling elite operated a secret $2.8bn (£2.2bn) slush fund for two years to pay off European politicians and make luxury purchases, an investigation shows, the BBCreports.

The money was allegedly channelled through four UK-based opaque companies.

People said to have been paid include European politicians who adopted a favourable attitude to the government.

There is no suggestion that all the recipients were aware of the original source of the money, it added.

The secret fund, nicknamed the Azerbaijan Laundromat, operated for two years until 2014, according to the investigation, carried out by a consortium of European newspapers and published by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).

The origin of the money was unclear, the report said, but there was “ample evidence of its connection to the family of President Ilham Aliyev”.

There has been no immediate reaction from Mr Aliyev or Azerbaijan’s government.

At the time the scheme allegedly took place, the oil-rich ex-Soviet state was being accused of systematic corruption, vote-rigging and abuses, including the jailing of opposition politicians, human rights activists and journalists.

Much of the money was said to have been paid to lobbyists, journalists, politicians and businessmen.

The four opaque companies which the scheme used – two based in England and two in Scotland – have now been dissolved.

One of Europe’s leading banks, the Danske Bank from Denmark, processed the payments to those companies via its branch office in Estonia. It admitted not doing enough to spot suspicious transactions.

Other cash funded luxuries, including private education for well-connected Azeri families living abroad, the investigation added.

Azerbaijani President's Spokesperson Blames Armenian Lobby and George Soros for Publication against Aliyev

Lragir.am

The spokesperson for the President of Azerbaijan has responded to the publications in BBC and the Guardian on a scheme of laundering 3 billion dollars by the Azerbaijani authorities through fake companies incorporated in the United Kingdom. The statement denies that the president of Azerbaijan and his family are anyhow related to the facts in the publications.

The spokesperson for the Azerbaijani president notes that the publications are backed by George Soros and the Armenian lobby.

Azeri government hits back at allegations it ran a secret slash fund to pay off European politicians and launder money.

05 Sep 2017 18:28 GMT

Aliyev took over as president in 2003 after the death of his father [File: Ilmars Znotins/AFP/Getty Images]

Azerbaijan's ruling elite ran a secret 2.5 billion euro ($2.9bn) slush fund to pay off European politicians and launder money, according to an investigation by a group of European newspapers.

The fund operated for two years from 2012 to 2014 through bank accounts of four shell companies registered in Britain, according to the investigation by papers including The Guardian and France's Le Monde and published on Tuesday by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.

Nicknamed the "Azerbaijan Laundromat", the origin of the fund is unclear "but there is ample evidence of its connection to the family of President Ilham Aliyev", the report said.

Azerbaijan votes on boosting presidential powers

Authorities in the energy-rich country dismissed claims that the funds were linked to the first family and said the reports were "biased, unfounded and provocative".

"They are part of a campaign to smear Azerbaijan," presidential adviser Ali Hasanov told AFP news agency, pointing the finger at arch-foe Armenia and the "global Armenian lobby."

The Guardian said some of the money went to politicians and journalists as part of a "caviar diplomacy" lobbying effort to deflect criticism at a time when the former Soviet state was being accused of arresting rights activists and journalists and of vote-rigging.

"This intensive lobbying operation was so successful that Council of Europe members voted against a 2013 report critical of Azerbaijan," the British newspaper said.

Banking records leaked to Danish newspaper Berlingske which sparked the investigation show multiple payments to several former members of the Council's parliamentary assembly, The Guardian said.

The Council of Europe, Europe's top rights watchdog, said three independent experts were questioning witnesses as part of a probe into any alleged corruption.

Top Azeri official Hasanov insisted that foreign politicians, officials and experts "who have friendly feelings towards Azerbaijan" were "having suspicions cast on their activities without any basis."

One of Europe's leading banks, Denmark's Danske Bank, processed the payments via its Estonia office.

"We have previously established that, in the period leading up to 2014, our branch in Estonia had inadequate measures in place to prevent Danske Bank from being exploited for money laundering and other illegal activities," Danske Bank's chief legal counsel Flemming Pristed said in a statement issued on Tuesday.

He said the bank had terminated relationships with a number of customers and does not "in any way want to be exploited for money laundering or other illegal activities."

The lender, however, said that it "cannot comment on specific customers or specific transfers in the present matter", insisting that it is "cooperating fully with the authorities".

The four British-registered firms used in the operation have been dissolved, The Guardian said.

The authorities in oil-rich Azerbaijan have faced strong international criticism over claims they routinely harass and jail Aliyev's opponents on trumped up charges. Officials deny this.

Azerbaijan ranked 162 out of 180 countries in the 2017 World Press Freedom Index released by Reporters Without Borders.

Aliyev took over in 2003 after the death of his father, Heydar Aliyev, a former KGB officer and communist-era leader who had ruled Azerbaijan with an iron fist since 1993.

Anti-corruption organisation Transparency International called for a raft of steps to help stop illegal money flows, including tightening public ownership registers and bolstering anti-laundering measures in Denmark.

Secret money-laundering scheme allegedly used to pay off European politicians, lobbyists, and a former CNN producer for their support.

5 September 2017

The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) has spearheaded an investigation that concludes that has members of Azerbaijan’s political elite created a secret slush fund involving some 2.5 billion euro (US$ 2.8 billion), used between 2012 and 2014 to “pay off European politicians, buy luxury goods, launder money, and otherwise benefit themselves.”

Dubbed the Laundromat “because the vast sums that passed through it were laundered through a series of shell companies to disguise their origin,” the investigation is based on financial documents leaked to Danish newspaper Berlingske, which collaborated with OCCRP. Other collaborators include major newspapers and media NGOs across Europe.

Concerning the origin of the money, OCCRP writes “its precise origin is unclear — again, hidden behind a series of secretive shell companies — but there is ample evidence of its connection to the family of President Ilham Aliyev.”

Some of the money was, says the report, used for backstairs influence over prominent European politicians, such as former members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE): Eduard Lintner, from Germany; Slovenian Zmago Jelincic Plemeniti; Italian Luca Volonte; and Bulgarian Kalin Mitrev, the husband of UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova, who has kept up friendly relations with the Aliyev family despite the backlash because of Azerbaijan’s poor human rights record.

Bokova replied to OCCRP inquiries by saying “questions about my opinion on Azerbaijan and its leadership are wholly misplaced. As a Director General of an UN agency, my duty is to develop sound working relations with all members of the organization in conformity with the policies, set by member States. Azerbaijan is not an exception in this respect.”

Also highlighted in the report was the nearly 2 million pounds ($2.6 million) paid to Sager Eckart, a former CNN producer, in 2014, apparently for producing positive coverage of the country.

Some of the money was also used for luxury purchases, being billed to car dealerships, football clubs, high-end travel agencies, hospitals, and private schools.

OCCRP notes that “many of these recipients would not have understood the problematic nature of the transfers, and cannot be accused of doing anything improper.”

RFE/RL reported today that the Azerbaijani presidential office denied any involvement of the president or members of his family in the alleged slush fund, blaming philanthropist George Soros for the publication of the report. Soros, whose foundations have donated millions of dollars to supporting civil society across Central and Eastern Europe, is a frequent target of authoritarian leaders.

Azerbaijan is taking to court two French broadcast journalists, Elise Lucet and Laurent Richard, in a trial set to have its first hearing today in a court in Paris. The two stand accused of defamation for referring to Azerbaijan as a “dictatorship” in relation to a 2015 visit of French then-President Francois Hollande.

Reporters Without Borders said that it “regards the lawsuit as an act of intimidation highlighting the Azerbaijani government’s contempt for free speech. Not content with eradicating all pluralism at home, the regime is now targeting its critics abroad.”

Last week, the director of the Turan News Agency, one of the last bastions of a free press in Azerbaijan, Mehman Aliyev, was detained over allegations of tax evasion and abuse of office.

A muckraking blogger has published documents showing how Azeri money flowed to Maltese companies linked to the Maltese prime minister’s wife and two local officials. The revelations led to early elections in the Mediterranean country.

Azerbaijan’s presidential aide, Ali Hasanov, said the stories by the Guardian and other media partners were a smear. In the first official reaction from Baku, Hasanov said the regime was the victim of a “scandalous” campaign organised by British intelligence, the Armenian diaspora and the US.

“When did the Guardian write about the truth about Azerbaijan? This newspaper has been known for decades for being against Azerbaijan,” Hasanov told the Turkish newspaper Hürriyet.The reports were “biased, groundless and provocative,” he said.

On Tuesday, the authorities blocked access from inside Azerbaijan to the website of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP). The OCCRP published details of the scheme, nicknamed the Azerbaijani Laundromat, following a leak of data to the Danish newspaper Berlingske.

The use of British companies in the Laundromat has prompted calls for Theresa May to investigate. On Tuesday May’s official spokesman said that the National Crime Agency would now examine the information from the Guardian and other media sources. The agency will “look at whether they would need to progress [to] an investigation”, the spokesman said.

This is the second time this year that British corporate entities have been found to be at the heart of a large-scale money laundering operation run from a former Soviet state. In March, a similar scheme run from Moscow, the $20bn Global Laundromat, was exposed.

Billions of pounds came through two Glasgow-based companies using obscure structure that let owners hide identities

Read more

Opposition politicians urged the government to act to prevent the abuse of company vehicles. Four offshore-owned British companies – based in Glasgow, Birmingham, and Potters Bar in Hertfordshire – were used to funnel money into the western financial system. It went via the Estonian branch of a Danish bank, Danske.

Tim Farron, the former Liberal Democrat leader, led calls for an inquiry, saying this was what happened “when the corporate landscape is too lightly regulated”.

“Thanks to the Guardian investigation we learn of something called the Azerbaijani Laundromat,” he said. “But now is the time to wash some fairly dirty laundry in public and find out exactly who paid money to whom and why.

“We need a full investigation to see that dirty money has not been used to buy influence in the UK. The Azerbaijani government is guilty of systematic human rights abuses and it would appear the regime has been making payments on an industrial scale.”

“Yet again a whistleblower has lifted the lid on some unconscionably awful behaviour,” she said. “It would seem that Britain and British overseas territories are facilitating alleged corrupt practices by refusing to introduce the full transparency the Conservatives promised but failed to deliver.

“Until we know who owns companies and properties in Britain and in the tax havens we control, such unacceptable practices will continue and Britain will be culpable because of the government’s failure to act.”

One London-based beneficiary of the Laundromat, Jovdat Guliyev, resigned on Monday from the Anglo-Azerbaijani Society. Guliyev received nearly £400,000 from the scheme. A former BP employee, he works for Azerbaijan’s state oil company.

The society’s co-chair, Liberal Democrat peer Lord German, said Guliyev quit nine minutes after the Guardian’s story went online. His name has now been removed from the Society’s website, German said, adding that none of the Laundromat payments went to the Society.

In an email to German, Guliyev did not explain why he had got the money but said it was legitimate and for his “personal use”.

Peter Dowd, Labour’s chief secretary to the Treasury, said: “Money laundering hurts our economy, steals from others and corrupts our society. The financial system should effectively and efficiently provide investment that benefits the whole economy, not boost the offshore bank balances of plutocrats and criminals here and abroad.

“We have seen too many of these shocking scandals in recent years because the Tories are incapable of taking on the rigged system, which hurts the many to support the very few.”

Molly Scott Cato, a Green MEP who sits on the European parliament’s economics and monetary affairs committee and inquiry into the Panama Papers, said the revelations were shocking and reveal “once again that British claims to be a leader in transparency conceal a far grubbier reality”.

“The relationship between UK companies and our murky offshore tax havens permit the world’s corrupt elite to indulge their extravagant lifestyles at public expense,” she said. “They then use these ill-gotten gains to buy political influence that prevents them from being held to account for human rights abuses and bad government.”

The four firms at the centre of the Azerbaijani Laundromat were all limited partnerships registered in the UK. They were: Metastar Invest, Hilux Services, Polux Management, and LCM Alliance. Their corporate “partners” are anonymous entities based in the British Virgin Islands, Seychelles and Belize.

Some of the cash from the £2.2bn fund was used to pay for luxuries such as cars, interior design and dentistry, while other sums went to European politicians and prominent figures linked to the promotion of Azerbaijan. Seven million pounds was spent directly in the UK, including on private school fees.

Azerbaijan’s ruling family is not directly named in the leaked documents. But evidence of a connection was overwhelming. Large sums came via the state-owned International Bank of Azerbaijan, which is the largest bank in an oil-wealthy country, and yet earlier this summer it filed for bankruptcy protection in New York. The defence and emergency situations ministries in Baku all contributed cash.

The scheme was used to pay for the government’s incidental expenses including the medical bills of Yaqub Eyyubov, Azerbaijan’s first deputy prime minister. There were separate payments to Eyyubov’s son Emin, Azerbaijan’s EU ambassador, and to the president’s press secretary, Azer Gasimov.

Azerbaijan's ruling elite ran a secret USD 2.9 billion slush fund to pay off European politicians and launder money, according to an investigation by a group of European newspapers published on Tuesday.

The fund operated for two years from 2012 to 2014 through bank accounts of four shell companies registered in Britain, according to the investigation by papers including The Guardian and France's Le Monde and published by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.

Nicknamed the "Azerbaijan Laundromat", the origin of the fund is unclear "but there is ample evidence of its connection to the family of President Ilham Aliyev", the report said.

The Guardian said some of the money went to politicians and journalists as part of a "caviar diplomacy" lobbying effort to deflect criticism at a time when the energy-rich former Soviet state was being accused of arresting rights activists and journalists and of vote-rigging.

"This intensive lobbying operation was so successful that Council of Europe members voted against a 2013 report critical of Azerbaijan," the British newspaper said.

Banking records leaked to Danish newspaper Berlingske which sparked the investigation show multiple payments to several former members of the Council's parliamentary assembly, The Guardian said.

The Council of Europe, Europe's top rights watchdog, is investigating alleged corruption over the vote, the BBC has reported.

One of Europe's leading banks, Denmark's Danske Bank, processed the payments via its Estonia office.

"At the time our systems and procedures in Estonia were insufficient to ensure that we could not be used for money laundering. We have taken the measures necessary to remedy this," Danske Bank said in March following reports of possible money laundering involving transactions by its Estonian branch in 2011-14, according to the Guardian.

It said it had terminated relationships with a number of customers.

"We do not want in any way to be used for money laundering or other criminal activity."

The four British-registered firms used in the operation have been dissolved, The Guardian said.

The authorities in oil-rich Azerbaijan have faced strong international criticism over claims they routinely harass and jail Aliyev's opponents on trumped up charges. Officials deny this.

Azerbaijan ranked 162 out of 180 countries in the 2017 World Press Freedom Index released by Reporters Without Borders.

Aliyev took over in 2003 after the death of his father Heydar Aliyev, a former KGB officer and communist-era leader who had ruled Azerbaijan with an iron fist since 1993.

Armen Ashotyan, chairman of the foreign relations committee of the Armenian Parliament, spoke about the Azerbaijani money laundering corruption scandal during the European People’s Party’s Political Assembly.

“During the EPP Political Assembly, I dedicated a part of my speech to the Azerbaijani corruption scandal involving money laundering of enormous amounts, the focus of which is also on certain European political circles. I especially emphasized that this money was spent not only to cover up democratic problems relating to Azerbaijan, but also for anti-Armenian actions and political pressures against Armenia.

European parties must support and pursue democracy, for investigating this unprecedented scandal which defames and threatens European institutions, and for revealing all circumstances and punishing the perpetrators”, Ashotyan said on Facebook.

An investigation shows that Azerbaijan’s ruling elite operated a secret $2.8bn “slush fund” for two years to bribe European politicians and make luxury purchases.

The money was allegedly channelled through four UK-based opaque companies.

People said to have been paid include European politicians who adopted a favorable attitude to the government.

The secret fund, nicknamed the Azerbaijan Laundromat, operated for two years until 2014, according to the investigation, carried out by a consortium of European newspapers and published by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).

The issue of Azerbaijan's supply of weapons to ISIS fighters was raised in PACE

Yerevan October 13

Tatevik Shahunyan. The issue of arms supplies to slamic state
militants by IAzerbaijan was raised today by the member of the
Armenian delegation Naira Zohrabyan from the rostrum of the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

She, in particular, stressed that information about this was published
in the authoritative Bulgarian edition of Trud. According to the
publication, Azerbaijan for about 3 years, under cover of diplomatic
flights that do not pass standard air control, sent weapons and
ammunition to IG fighters. She also said that, according to the
reduction of many authoritative international publications and
organizations, the same IG fighters are fighting on the side of
Azerbaijan in the zone of the Karabakh conflict.

In this regard, Zohrabyan called on the PACE to study these and other
publications of authoritative media about Azerbaijan's participation
in various illegal and criminal transactions. "We have no right to
ignore these serious facts," she summed up.

It should be noted that the Bulgarian authoritative publication Trud
published information that Azerbaijan for three years on the boards of
the state-owned airline Silken Way Airlines, under the cover of dipres
that do not pass standard air control, supplied arms and ammunition to
the IG militants in various hot spots of the world (Syria, Iraq,
Afghanistan, Pakistan, Congo). In general, according to the
publication, about 350 such flights were carried out. During each
flight, crafts were full with dozens of tons of weapons and
ammunition.

Bulgarian journalist Dilyana Gaitandzhieva has demanded from
President Radev to raise the issue of delivering weapons to ISIS
militants from Azerbaijan

Yerevan October 13

Tatevik Shahunyan. The Bulgarian journalist Dilyana Gaitandzhieva,
whose efforts uncovered the Azerbaijani fraud with arms supplies to
ISIS militants, reacted with sharp comments to the visit of Bulgarian
President Rumen Radev to Azerbaijan.

On her Facebook page, the journalist asked, in particular, whether the
heads of Bulgaria and Azerbaijan will discuss the sale of weapons to
Islamist terrorists. "Mr. Radev, did you ask the President of
Azerbaijan how the Bulgarian-made weapons were in the hands of the
ISIS terrorists and An-Nusra in Syria through diplomatic flights
authorized by the Bulgarian authorities on the planes of the
state-owned company of Azerbaijan SilkWay Airlines?" Gaitandzhieva
wrote in the social network.

It is noteworthy that the journalist was fired from work immediately
after the publication in the authoritative Bulgarian edition of "Trud"
of investigations into Azerbaijan's deliveries of weapons to ISIS
militants, however, this did not break Gaytandzieva.

In June 2017, in the authoritative Bulgarian edition of Trudl, an
investigation was published about how Azerbaijan, for three years
under the cover of diplomatic flights, which do not pass standard air
control, on the sides of the Azerbaijani state-owned airline SilkWay
Airlines various hot spots (Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Congo) to
militants of Islamist organizations.

After the publication of this article Gaitandzhieva several times
asked for a personal meeting with the President of Bulgaria to provide
him with documents relating to the national security of the country.
However, the journalist was never given the opportunity, moreover, she
was fired from her job.

President of Bulgaria Rumen Radev is on a visit to Azerbaijan these days.

Meanwhile, the Armenian delegation in the Parliamentary Assembly of
the Council of Europe also raised this issue in the structure, urging
PACE to thoroughly investigate this information.